A probable cause hearing Wednesday afternoon in Attleboro (Mass.) District Court is the next critical event in the Aaron Hernandez murder investigation, even as other elements of the case remain in flux.

Yet, in light of everything that had been unveiled in the case so far against Hernandez involving the death of Odin Lloyd, said one legal expert, “it’s curious that the probable-cause hearing is even being held. It’s basically going to be a non-event."

Aaron Hernandez was charged with the first-degree murder of Odin Lloyd. (AP Photo)

A large amount of evidence against Hernandez has been unveiled by prosecutors in court and through unsealed warrants issued by the judge, pointed out N. Jeremi Duru, a sports law professor at American University. The goal of a probable cause hearing is for the judge to determine whether there is reason to believe a crime was committed and that the defendant committed it.

If so, the case will be sent to trial, and if not, the charges could be dismissed.

Hernandez has been held without bail in a Bristol County, Mass., jail since his arraignment on June 26, but a trial cannot proceed unless an indictment is handed down by a grand jury – and technically, at least in Massachusetts, a grand jury can indict without probable cause being found by a judge.

A grand jury is currently meeting on the Hernandez case in Fall River. Last Thursday, it heard from Alexander Bradley, who has filed a civil suit accusing Hernandez of shooting him in Florida in February. The procedure is closed; Bradley’s testimony is unknown, and he left the courthouse afterward without speaking to reporters.

The probable-cause hearing could be pre-empted by a decision by the grand jury before Wednesday—but not only is a grand jury decision not expected that quickly, it generally would not reach one without a probable cause ruling.

Routinely, the probable cause hearing takes place before a grand jury finishes its session – a “prerequisite to a grand jury indictment," Duru said.

Whenever an indictment is handed down, the case would be moved to state Superior Court and, possibly, a trial date would be set.

Delaying the hearing is unlikely, too, thanks to a state Supreme Court ruling this past January that reaffirmed the right for defendants to face such hearings in a relatively timely fashion without repeated continuances requested by prosecutors. So far, though, there is no indication that prosecutors would ask for a delay.

Prosecutors do not have to prove their case either to the grand jury or the judge in the probable-cause hearing beyond a reasonable doubt, as they would in a trial. “The bar of proof is much lower," Deru said.

At the same time, the hearing is nothing close to a definitive conclusion of the case; Hernandez’s lawyers will have a much greater opportunity to present its side and to contest the evidence, perceived motive and the state’s witnesses.

According to the website for the Middlesex County (Mass.) district attorney’s office, probable-cause hearings are “similar to a trial in that witnesses testify and are cross-examined in the presence of the defendant." It was not known Monday whether prosecutors would call witnesses for this hearing.

Hernandez’s lawyers, meanwhile, will likely attempt to prove that the evidence presented so far, and whatever is introduced on Wednesday, is not sufficient to convince the judge to order a trial.

Besides the stream of evidence made public in court at Hernandez’s arraignment and at his bail hearing a day later, police search warrants were unsealed on July 9. Among other details, the warrants revealed that one of the two men jailed as accomplices in the case, Carlos Ortiz, told investigators that he was told by the other accomplice that Hernandez had fired the shots that killed Lloyd on June 17.

The man Ortiz said told him that, Ernest Wallace, was scheduled to face a pretrial hearing in Attleboro Monday, but the hearing was postponed until Friday. Wallace agreed to stay in jail without bond until then.

Last Friday, several media organizations requested that the court unseal two arrest warrants and more search warrants in the case. According to the Quincy (Mass.) Patriot-Ledger, one of the outlets making the request, the motion is based on “the public’s presumptive rights of access to the judicial process in this Commonwealth and the records relevant thereto, and its corresponding right to be fully and fairly informed about matters of significant public interest."

Coincidentally, the hearing for the motion is also scheduled for Wednesday.

Neither hearing is expected to take very long. With what the prosecutors will have at their disposal and the standard being fairly easy to reach, the probable cause hearing, as significant as it is, could be over quickly.